54

torrent


I can sense it. Something important is about to happen. It's coming up.

Another has gone missing. This time a girl.

"Old enough to know better," Zanna said about the matter. Still it doesn't ease this sense in me that something wrong is going on. It shouldn't be happening. The grounds are quiet now. The quaint feel of the streets slide through the day. No one new is around. Well, except me. And of course, Axel who puts in as much play as he can winning small prizes in those Knucklebone games. I'm afraid he's going to make someone mad soon. He was out until deep in the night.

He says its just a cover. You know, Knucklebones. But he didn't see anything. Didn't even know the girl was gone.

"But what if they came right into her dwelling." Could it be possible that something evil lurks in someone's veins in the dark. Could be just a sickness? Or a curse? Or just plain old evil?

"Sometimes, you can sweat it out," Zanna mentioned while we were tiddying up after the evening meal. "Put a hex on it and stomp it out."

"You do that sort of thing?" All I know of her is a kitchen witch with her herbs and spells to make a house a home. She even knows how to get the best blessing of a room by putting furniture in the correct position.

"Not this, I'm afraid. I'm afraid it might harm us all if it doesn't leave soon."

"So its still here?"

"I've had a chill in my throat since the beginning of the feast, child. Its still with us." Her marble eyes sank into my stare and for a moment I thought I could feel it too. The icy chill.

"Then what is it?" I could barely speak.

"Something dead." Then her words went backwards and I couldn't hear the rest.

I'm glad Axel made it home safely because I'm afraid it might be out there circling this very place.

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